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Nightmare Moon's Guide to Being a Baddie
Greetings, sun-loving heathens. I suppose it’s time I’ve graced you all with my presence and allow you the chance to learn how to be a villain from the BEST. Now, some of you may be saying, “But Nightmare, why should we listen to you?” WHY WOULDN’T YOU WANT TO?! ARE MY WORDS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?!?!?! WOULD YOU RATHER THEY COME FROM THAT INFURIATING SUNSPOT THEY CALL CELES-.... *ahem*... You don’t have to listen, but I highly encourage you to (lest I cast you to Tartarus). Who knows, you may learn something. So, what is a villain? More often than not, they are a character who has the same characteristics as the protagonist, but they're warped and misguided. They're persuasive, proud, deceitful, cunning, vengeful, jealous, and will stop at nothing to get what they want, and sometimes they even succeed! To make a villain believable and three dimensional, these key traits are needed: motivation, intelligence, history, dialog, and variety. To be honest, a villain is going to depend on who their opponent is, but most -- if not all -- have these basic characteristics. A very important thing to mention while playing a villain is that 9.9 times out of 10, the villain fails. 'Be prepared to lose, in fact, most of your roleplay arcs should end with your character being defeated. Motivation Motivation is by far the most important reasoning to playing a villain. Without it, your character is bad simply because they are evil; that’s pretty plain and predictable. It’s too easy. No one is a villain just because- they need a reason, an obsession, a backstory or incident that made them who they are today, irrational thinking-- you name it. The world is your proverbial oyster when coming up with the why behind the actions of your character. Remember, a villain believes what they are doing is right, and that they are the good guy. A good example of a villain and motivation is in Shakespeare’s ''Titus Andronicus, with the character Tamora. Tamora is the Queen of the Goths, who is captured by Titus and forced to plead for the life of her son, who is killed regardless. She uses this event to shape her actions in the tragedy, turning her into a ruthless and blackhearted woman who truly enjoys the thought of violence against Titus. Let’s also look at a recent example in modern media, Blue Diamond from Steven Universe. Blue Diamond was close to Pink Diamond, and mourned the shattering of the latter. When blame was put on Rose Quartz, Blue Diamond vowed to get revenge. While still willing to listen to Rose Quartz’s (Steven’s) side of the story in a trial, she had already made her judgement because of her personal relationship with Pink Diamond and was content to shatter Rose Quartz. Intelligence Wrongdoers are cunning. They have to be, to go against heroes. They’re clever and accomplished, so much so that a small amount of begrudging respect is earned. In other words, he can’t be a fool or bumbler (unless, of course, you’re going for satire). On top of intelligence, you also need tactfulness. Without it, what the villain does has no meaning, or may simply cause events to happen at the wrong time. Timing is key, and a good villain knows when is the perfect time to try and take over the world, and when it is not. History History is very different from backstory, in the sense that to be credible threat your character needs a list of misdeeds to look back on. This goes for both in character and out of character, and is a common issue most OC villains seem to have. No pony would be taken seriously if they showed up and tried to take over Ponyville to negotiate it’s release to a Princess if they don’t have a rap sheet of comparable acts. If your character is an OC, you’ll need to start from the beginning and build that history. It’s much more satisfying to see than just simply implying your character has done these things, and gives you more credit to your actions. Backstory Not to be confused with history, but tied in with motivation, a backstory is absolutely critical. It gives your character the motivation they need to be who they are today. Keep in mind that Twitterponies is PG, so the backstory does not need to be gloom and doom. Take a look at Starlight, for example. Her backstory is simple and something that could happen to any pony. Dialog Good dialog is something that takes skill and practice, and unfortunately has many cliche phrases that are best to avoid, unless you’re making specific references. It should be unique between the villain and the protagonist, especially if they have a history together! Take a look at Daring Do and Ahuizotl, for example. Daring playfully teases Ahuizotl often, interrupting his monologues and creating a banter that only they can do. Description Describing your character using strong, vivid detail can make them that much more believable. Listing habits, tics, gait, or stand out physical features can breath life into the character and make them unique. Variety To create a memorable villain, show how your character interacts with those that agree with them, as well as protagonists. Do they treat both with malice, or is there difference between how they interact with ponies on each side? Creating multiple adversaries as well as henchmen will give you opportunities to show off the personality of your villain. You can show how far power has corrupted your character by showing if he is uniformly unforgiving and cruel, or has soft spots for those who follow them. You can also make him unexpectedly kind towards some, making him seem more human for lack of a better term. This can aspect can change as your character grows and develops with the story arcs you plan! TL;DR '''Do's * Give your villain a personality unique to them! Give them depth and varying emotions. * Grow your character, develop their personality as time goes on! * Plan to fail! * Make them relatable to the reader. Anyone can become a villain. * Give them pitfalls and weaknesses. * Create an interesting backstory! * Give them credibility through past deeds. Don't * Be evil just to be evil. * Fall into cliches. * Skip on the backstory or history. Category:TwitterPonies Guidelines Category:RP Info